The labeling machine of this invention is of the kind wherein there are one or more pickers, for example, three, arranged to rotate about a common center relative to a glue-applying roll, a magazine and a label transfer drum arranged about the same center in such a way that the pickers, respectively, have contact with the surface of the glue-applying roll to receive a layer of glue, contact with the endmost label in a label magazine to pick a label from the magazine and contact with the label transfer drum where the labels are removed from the picker by clamp fingers carried by the transfer drum and moved by the latter into engagement with containers traveling along a path tangential to the label transfer drum. If the bottles or containers to which the labels to be applied are uniformly cylindrical from top to bottom, the labels may be readily moved into contact with the surfaces of the bottles or containers because of the tangential relation between the surface of the transfer drum and the surfaces of the containers traveling along relative thereto. If the containers, especially bottles, are of the kind having a body portion of one diameter and a tapering neck portion and it is desirable to apply labels both to the body portion and to the neck portion, provision must be made for moving the label-applying pads carried by the transfer drum for applying labels to the necks relative to those for applying labels to the body closer to the path of travel of the bottles in order to press the labels to the inclined surface. This has been done in the past by mounting the label-applying pads on pivotally-supported arms or on reciprocally-supported arms and extending the pads by pivotal movement or reciprocal movement of the arms to engage the labels with the inclined portions of the containers. Such an arrangement involves a complexity of mechanisms. It is the purpose of this invention to so employ the conventional arrangement of the pickers, glue-applying roll, magazine and label transfer roll as to enable applying labels to the perpendicular and inclined surfaces of containers without substantial modification and without having to employ pivotally movable or reciprocally movable pads and the mechanisms required to effect their movement. It is a further object of the invention to use in conjunction with the label-applying assembly of this invention means for retracting the label magazine in the event of a gap in the procession of containers or no containers to prevent waste of labels and simultaneously reduce the amount of glue on the glue-applying roll to prevent accumulation of an excess amount of glue on the picker surfaces.